Pad kra pao Thai chicken holy basil stir fry
Pad Kra pao is a super popular Thai street food dish, and it’s all about bold flavors and heat. This recipe uses minced chicken, which soaks up all the delicious spices, with a satisfying chili kick from the birds eye chillies. It's quick and convenient to make at home with mostly store cupboard ingredients.
Calories 825kcal
Equipment
- 1 non stick wok
Ingredients
- 5-10 Thai bird's eye chillies to taste
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 long red chilies chopped
- ½ small onion diced
- 300 g chicken coarsely minced by hand or ready minced chicken
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1½ tsp black soy sauce not requitred if you use the Thai seasong sauce
- 1 tsp sugar not required if you use the Thai seasoning sauce
- 2 tbsp Thai seasoning sauce (green top)
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 handful holy basil leaves loosely packed or 2 tbsp dry holy basil
- 3 tbsp dry holy basil alternative to fresh
- Cooking oil as required
- 2 eggs 1 per person
- Jasmine rice for serving
Instructions
- Pound Thai chilies into a fine paste.
- Add garlic and chillies and pound into a rough paste. If you dont't have a mortar and pestle, just chop this finely instead.
- Prepare the stir fry sauces: soy sauce, fish sauce, black soy sauce, water and sugar. If you use the Thai soy sauce, you can omit the sugar and dark soy sauce.
- In a wok or a large saute pan, saute the garlic-chili paste in a little oil over medium high heat until the garlic starts to turn golden.
- If you are using the alternative dry holy basil, add this now to rehydrate and release flavour as it cooks.
- Add chicken and stir fry until the meat changes colour and is cooked. Add the stir fry sauce and continue stir frying for at least 2 mins.
- Remove from heat and stir in the fresh holy basil. Taste to adjust seasoning.
- Spoon over steamed rice.
- Crispy fried egg
- Heat a generous amount of oil in the wok over medium high heat. To get the crispy edges, you need to submerge the egg in oil to shallow fry.
- Once the oil is hot, crack the egg directly into the pan. Fry until the edges are crispy and frilly.
- Serve the Pad Kra Pao with rice and top it with the fried egg.
Notes
Note: If you don't have holy basil, Thai basil will work too but regular basil has a similar flavour so that is an alternative too.
Thai seasoning sauce or green top sauce is a staple in most Thai home kitchens. This is a type of soy sauce with added sugar. You can use this as a substitute for the dark soy sauce and sugar in Thai recipes.